It's COMCASTIC!

My introductory year-long bundled cable/internet/phone services offer ends on 2/4/09 (as I knew it would), and the a la carte price is to be almost double (as I knew it would be), so I sought a new bundle with my "provider" (as I was pretty sure I would).

(What a misuse of that word, no?)

Not wanting to wait until the last minute (with three days to spare), I called my provider yesterday and asked what kind of deal I could get.

The price would be a bit higher (as I knew it would be), and I wouldn't get my HBO anymore (a bit disappointing but, now that John Adams is history and my library gets Flight of the Conchords, I won't be needing it anymore really), so I accepted...asking politely

"But I'll keep the HBO until 2/4 when my last payment runs out, correct?"

"Yes, until the 4th," the young man replied.

This morning my lovely wife informed me that our HBO was gone, so I called my provider again.

"Service changes are immediate," I was told.

Grrrr.

The long and short of the exchange (heated on my part, coolly efficient on hers, I must admit) was this: Not only was I not going to be refunded the pro-rated amount of the HBO I lost, I was going to have to pay the pro-rated increased rate of the new higher-priced bundle!?!

Grrrr.

"Service changes are immediate."

To my customer service representative's credit, while she never admitted that her company's policy was asinine (in its encouragement of customers to act only at the very last moment) or disingenuous (if not downright theft in attempting to deny me service already paid for), she did a) give me back my HBO for three more days and b) deduct the additional cost of the new bundled service for the remaining three days of my old bundle.

I'm not saving any money the next three days, but I'm not losing any either.

Life IS Comastic.

(And before anybody tells me "well, switch to ATT," know I've got a story to tell about them, too. That's how I ended up with this provider.)

Oh, how I miss Ma Bell!!!